OPB Audio

Spokane Latino-led groups rally disaster resources in Spanish

A feature on how attendees at the Crook and Baker County fairs are dealing with wildfire smoke.

The Portland Trail-Bladers host their final Beyblade tournament at Portland's Lloyd Center ahead of its closure on Aug 8, 2026. The mall transformed into a community living room over the past few years.

The power of a powwow has been described as a collective heartbeat that draws people together. Celebrants often say they feel unity and freedom as they dance in a circle. Those elements are especially vital for those serving time at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem, where life is spent behind barbed wire and fortified walls. But as KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, for one day each year...

Gov. Kotek’s recent executive order on instructional time — and the process to put it in place — raise questions about the state board’s job.

Mass fish necropsy helps forecast salmon returns in Oregon

Tye Austin is a classical guitarist and composer from Southern Oregon and also the founder and artistic director of Wilder Frets: Classical Guitar in the Wilderness. The two-month-long concert tour that kicked off on Aug. 1 features Austin performing original and traditional classical guitar compositions at 15 state parks and other outdoor locations, from the Central Oregon high desert to the Port...

One of the most watched congressional races in the country is in Southwest Washington, and yesterday’s primary yielded few surprises. Washington’s 3rd Congressional District will be critical for both Democrats and Republicans hoping to control the U.S. House. Out of 435 House seats on the ballot this year, it’s one of only a handful of races political experts say will be a toss-up. Republican stat...

At first, Ada Limón wasn’t able to write poetry during the pandemic. And then she wrote a poem called “The Hurting Kind.” From that flowed the rest of her new book of poems under that same name. We talked to Limón, then the poet laureate of the United States, before an audience in April 2023 at the Literary Arts space in downtown Portland.

In 2019, a 19-year-old man named Zac Brettler died after jumping off the balcony of a luxury apartment in London near the River Thames. Police never came to a conclusion about what led to Brettler’s death. But soon after, it was revealed that Brettler was living a double-life, filled with lies and organized crime in a city changed by extreme wealth. Patrick Radden Keefe dives into this story in hi...

Four years ago, a Portland Jewish family’s home was destroyed in an arson. As they got rid of all their burned belongings, the one thing they couldn’t bear to do was toss out with the rest of the burned remains a 100 year-old Steinway grand piano that had belonged to “Grandma Bess.” Much of it was intact, though not restorable. They reached out to musicians and artists and ultimately found their w...

On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing an estimated 140,000 thousand people. Hideko Tamura Snider was 10 years old at the time of the devastating blast and suffered unspeakable loss. She tells her story and her work for peace and reconciliation in the new documentary “Seeds of Peace.” She recently revised and updated her 1998 memoir “On...

Last year, California and Washington passed laws to make it easier to allow midrise buildings to be built near transit stations throughout the state. Oregon did not. According to Fischer Jemisen, who runs urbanpdx.blog, transit-oriented upzoning in Portland could help answer the ridership recovery issues that TriMet is having. He joins us to share more on the benefits and challenges of transit upz...

Stage magic reached its peak in the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th century, when illusionists such as Harry Houdini and Howard Thurston fascinated audiences with feats of escapism, levitation and more. It had a resurgence in the late 20th century when David Copperfield, Penn and Teller and others brought their acts to television audiences. In the age of reality TV stars and social media infl...

The Portland-based organization Stone Soup hosts a twelve-week culinary education training for individuals that have had significant employment barriers, whether that be experiences with substance abuse, gaps in work experience, lack of access to resources or housing, or other systemic obstacles. The program works to equip those participants with skills to enter the food service industry. The orga...

Oregon ranchers race to protect cattle from Grasshopper Fire

Fire camps ensure crews are fed and equipped as wildfires ravage Oregon

As the Bench Fire continues to threaten the Warm Springs Reservation in Central Oregon, people who’ve lost homes, and those still trying to protect them, are waiting for clarity about when the danger will pass, and what resources they’ll have to recover.

Dave Jeter thought it would be like the last time a fire threatened his corner of Baker County. It wasn’t.

‘Light of Day’ memoir tells story of Portland family’s heartbreaking struggle with childhood cancer / Portland author Lorna MacKinnnon Day has written a new memoir about her son’s diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer when he was 9 years old. “Light of Day,” details the ways her family navigated six years of his treatment for Ewing sarcoma. After his death, she founded the Sam Day Foundation,...

Oregon’s wildfires have now burned an estimated 1.8 million acres so far. Dozens of large fires are continuing to burn, many only partially contained. The Confederate Tribes of the Warm Springs reservation in North Central Oregon is at risk from the Bench fire in the area. The KWSO radio station located inside the reservation is playing a critical role in helping the community stay informed about...

A conversation with OPB southwest Washington Bureau chief Erik Neumann ahead of Washington's upcoming primary election set for Tuesday, August 4th.

1803 Fund aims to involve the North Portland community as it pursues its vision for the neighborhood near the Moda Center.

Fog is a constant presence on the Oregon Coast, but it can be difficult to measure and track. In a recent study, researchers used webcams that are normally used to check surfing conditions to get a better picture of when and where fog forms and dissipates. The team analyzed images from six cameras stretching from Cannon Beach to Yaquina Head and compared them with data from a visibility sensor at...

Disability Rights Oregon filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that Portland and Multnomah County “fail to protect people with disabilities before, during and after disasters.” It argues that the city and county’s emergency management systems — from alerts and warnings to evacuation assistance and shelter accommodations — are out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. For more on the l...